1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic music playing device which incorporates plural tone generating channels, and in particular, relates an improvement in the technology of separate recording and playback of the different parts making up the musical output of such devices.
2. Prior Art
Prior art pertinent to the present invention includes that of automatic music playing devices which can separately record and replay each part of a musical composition, for example, the bass part, the rhythm part, etc., and which are provided with one or more tone generating channels, each individually designated for its respective part. Examples include Japanese Patent Application No. 197095 of 1983. In the case of such devices, the number of available tone generating channels that can simultaneously generate a musical tone are fixed for each part, thereby leading to limitations on the music which may be produced. For example, in a device in which three channels are assigned to the chord part and one channel is assigned to the bass part, it is impossible to generate four tones simultaneously for the chord part or two tones for the bass part.
This problem may be solved by increasing the number of channels available for each part. This, however, requires a more complex design of the tone generation apparatus. Furthermore, it would be costly and inefficient to assign a large number of tone generating channels to a part of the musical output where they might seldom be required.